Former Chicago Bulls point guard and Lakers veteran role player Rajon Rondo has a hand injury that will hold him out of the beginning of the restart.
There is a ton of news pertaining to the NBA’s season restart for later this month among former Chicago Bulls players. Between those former Bulls getting signed to fill out rosters for the 22 teams participating in the season’s restart starting this month and those with injury updates, there’s a lot for this fan base to follow if they want to note where they favorites from yesteryear are now.
Some big news dropped on the Twitter timeline of Shams Charania of The Athletic on July 13 that former Bulls point guard and current Los Angeles Lakers veteran Rajon Rondo will miss some time at the beginning of the restart due to injury. Rondo is one of a few Lakers guards that will be missing some or all of the rest of the 2019-20 season.
The report from Shams early on Monday morning shows that Rondo is undergoing surgery on a fractured right thumb and is expected to miss six-to-eight weeks as a result. Rondo was a key part of the Lakers guard rotation prior to the novel coronavirus-induced season hiatus. This is a big loss for the Lakers at the outset of the restart.
Lakers guard Rajon Rondo has suffered a fractured right thumb, will undergo surgery and is expected to miss 6-to-8 weeks.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 13, 2020
The NBA’s season restart has games planned to begin on July 30 at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL. The Lakers will enter the restart at Disney World later this month with the best record in the Western Conference (49-14), and the second best in the NBA behind the Milwaukee Bucks (53-12).
The Bulls ended their 65 games of the 2019-20 season prior to the COVID-19-induced hiatus with a record of 22-43. They are one of six teams in the East that will not be participating in the season’s restart. The only team in the East currently outside of the playoff picture that will be competing at Disney World is the Washington Wizards (24-40 record).
Moreover, losing the veteran presence of Rondo off the bench is a significant hit to the Lakers guard rotation. He played in 48 games in the season that is currently on pause (starting in three of them). Rondo averaged 7.1 points per game, 3.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 0.8 steals.
Rondo played in one season with the Bulls (back in 2016-17). He’s played in more than a dozen seasons in his lengthy NBA career, with more than five different teams. He’s averaged 10.2 points per game, 4.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists, in 873 regular season games played in his career to date.